Incidents in the Rue Laugier

by Anita Brookner

Maud Gonthier yearns for an escape from the cocoon of the bourgeois modesty. The splendid, caddish David Tyler appears to offer one. In this stylish, deeply knowing novel by the Booker Prize winning author of Hotel du Lac, Maud's seduction creates a chemistry of longing, sensuality, and betrayal--with a surprising climax.

Genres: Fiction, Literary Fiction, France, Literature, Female Authors, British Literature, Paris

233 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Anita Brookner published her first novel, A Start In Life in 1981. Her most notable novel, her fourth, Hotel du Lac won the Man Booker Prize in 1984. Her novel, The Next Big Thing was longlisted (alongside John Banville's, Shroud) in 2002 for the Man Booker Prize. She published more than 25 works of fiction, notably: Strangers (2009) shortlisted for the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, Fraud (1992) and, The Rules of Engagement (2003). She was also the first female to hold a Slade Professorship of Fine Arts at Cambridge University.

Reviews

[zed · Rating 4 out of 5]

Andy Miller of Backlisted podcast fame has had an ongoing love affair with the writing of Anita Brookner to the point he made a joke about there being a “cult” readership due to his enthusiasm. That enthusiasm would never have made me think I would walk into a charity shop and find not one but four novels by Brookner all for the princely sum of $2 each. I grabbed them all, I mean, what more can I complain about? If I didn’t like the writer that much, it was a donation to a charity at the very least.

So with absolutely no intention to particularly start this cult writer, I did exactly that. The truth is that I would once have run a thousand kilometres from a novel such as this as it had minimal dialogue, long passages that were deep descriptions of individuals and of place and was then lacking a particularly strong plot.

For whatever reason I could not put Incidents in the Rue Laugier down, the writing is extraordinarily good and that has to be part of it, the depth of the characters was of such quality in the descriptors used I found myself just compelled to keep reading. As to the theme, it covers that reality that the vast majority live, a life unfulfilled.

The story is written by Maffy, the daughter of the two main protagonists, Edward and Maud. Maffy in the first chapter admits that this is an unreliable narration of her parent’s life and is based on a few words written in a notebook that she found after her mother passed, and also confesses to having no idea as to their lives and that the tale told is fabrication. With that Maffy tells of the meeting of Edward and Maud and how they “fell in love” and got married, had a child and then lived and died in an all very simple and so middle class bourgeois way. And that is it!

But…….it is so well told and written I could not put this down. This was neither unhappy nor happy families, it was the story of lives that might have been, and the sense of loneliness that pervaded both characters as their very existence just chugged along and along. I am amazed how much I enjoyed this and I too join the cult.

Highly recommended for the sublime writing alone.

[Georgia Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Any notation, any record, is better than none."

In common with James Joyce, Anita Brookner writes for those who can't. Joyce speaks for those who couldn't bear to leave Ireland. Brookner pens the life of those who cling to family duty instead of fulfilling their romantic desires. As a result, Incidents in the Rue Laugier is as much about what doesn't happen as what does. Therein lies its beauty and sadness.

Timid or brave? The reader can decide what these characters are. Like Joyce, Brookner doesn't tell you what to think. I like that. It's rare these days. That chance to make up my own mind.

[William2 · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Hot stuff hot stuff
Can't get enough
Hot stuff hot stuff,
Can't get enough"

--Rolling Stones

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

For this Anita Brookner fan, Incidents in the Rue Laugier is oddly uneven and unsatisfying. Her final Chapter 15 is superb, vintage Brookner at her best; Chapter 1 is also memorable. But Chapters 2 through 9 — so uncharacteristic of Brookner — meander along in a miasma of French summer heat. The rakish, wealthy, outrageously charismatic David Tyler conquers Marie-Paule, Patricia, with Maud — Maud Lucie Simone Gonthier— soon to follow. Harrison — Edward Harding Harrison — Tyler’s ineffective sidekick follows behind, and finally proposes to Maud when she finds herself pregnant by Tyler. The middle chapters plod along and strain credibility: we read about dreary characters in dreary situations. But Brookner redeems herself by portraying Maud and Edward following their marriage.

Brookner chooses as her narrator Mary Françoise, Maud and Edward’s now adult daughter. Maffy, as she is known to her parents, and Mary, as she is known to her friends, offers ”Please accept me as an unreliable narrator.” Maffy tells us that the story she has written of her parents ”is a fabrication, one of those by which each of us lives, and as such an enormity, nothing to do with the truth. But perhaps the truth we tell ourselves is worth any number of facts, verifiable or not.”. So Maffy reminds us that Incidents in Rue Laugier is more imagined than real family history, a fiction within a novel, best enjoyed when the reader refrains from wondering how she imagines such detailed and uncomfortable events and emotions.

Incidents in the Rue Laugier packs a double wallop of Brooknerian themes of unrequited love. Maud embodies Brookner’s frequent theme of the longing of a quiet, withdrawn young woman for the glamorous man spewing sex appeal. More interesting, Edward embodies the less common but especially effective Brookner theme of a man’s hopelessly longing for the love of his wife and for the love of his child. Such sadness here.

Brookner surprises with the mutability of characters and relationships. Maud, always a reader, retreats into her and Edward’s well-furnished flats for afternoons with novels with women’s names as titles, supplied to her by Edward from his successful rare bookshop. Maud comes to accept Edward and transforms herself into an affectionate and appreciative if not loving or affectionate wife. Maffy admits that ”I never discovered whether she had ever loved him; I rather thought not.” As she ages, Maud remains reticent but becomes less farouche. Edward, frustrated and disappointed, puts ”up no resistance to what he thought of despairingly as his night thoughts. He loved his daughter as extravagantly as he loved is wife, and with, he knew, the same lack of success. The impossibility of being loved as he had hoped, as he had dreamed of being loved, began to play on his mind.” Maffy, conceived after ten years of marriage, bonds easily with her mother and barely with her sad and yearning father.

3.5 Brookner stars, redeemed by first and last chapters and best enjoyed by rereading

[Barb H · Rating 4 out of 5]

As I continue to read Anita Brookner's books, I find increased admiration and awe for her skill and precision in her writing. Her language use is elegant and the depth of her character development is succinct and dramatic.

"Incedents in the Rue Laugier" is an absorbing study of a group of people, especially Maud Gonthier and Edward Harrison. Initially as I viewed their activities, language and comportment, I had the impression that I was reading about the Victorian era. However, it became evident that it was then in the 1970's. Much stress was placed on propriety,- being involved with the right people and especially appearances. These strictures placed upon the main characters in this novel are the essence of the psychological drama which was a constant thread throughout. The major theme for Edward and Maud and others was one of longing, epecially to belong, to love and be loved and to be viewed equitably by others. At the same time, it seemed important for them "never to let their guards down".

One could not consider this an uplifting piece, yet I was captivated immediately by Brookner's style and her ability to paint such vivid pictures with her writing.

[Lauren Albert · Rating 4 out of 5]

None of the reviews here seem to mention the fact that it is an unreliable narrator telling the story of Maud and Edward ("Please accept me as an unreliable narrator," she even writes). Their daughter, "Maffy," comes across some notes jotted by her mother into a notebook and discovered after both her parents have died. She transforms these 9 words into a story. "It is a fabrication," Maffy says, "one of those by which each of us lives, and as such an enormity, nothing to do with the truth. But perhaps the truth we tell ourselves is woth any number of facts, verifiable or not. This unrecorded story--unrecorded for a very good reason--is a gesture only, a gesture towards my mother...who told me nothing either of what happened or what failed to happen, and how she came to live with us, so far from home." So, what is more interesting than the story, to me, is how Maffy came to tell that story and why she transformed those 9 words into the story she tells.

[Elina Mäntylammi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Booker-palkittu Anita Brookner on ollut TBR-lukulistallani jo pitkään, mutta vasta Helmet-haasteen myötä tartuin erääseen hänen romaaniinsa. Päivät Pariisissa tuntui sijoittuvan jonnekin 1800-luvun seurapiireihin ja hämmästyinkin, kun kirjassa yhtäkkiä mainittiin vuosiluku 1971. Siihen mennessä ihmissuhteiden ja säädyllisyyksien vatulointi oli melkein syönyt kiinnostukseni kokonaan.

Lopulta kuitenkin antauduin ihmismielen pienimpien liikehdintöjen analysointiin mukaan. Kolmiodraama, johon osallistuvat eteerisen kaunis ranskatar, Maud Gonthier, ja brittiläisen yläluokan hurmuri David Tyler sekä vastuuntuntoinen brittiherrasmies Edward Harrison, osoittautui varsin tarkaksi luotaukseksi rakkaussuhteiden monimutkaisiin kerroksiin ja täyttymättömiin toiveisiin.

Kirjasta tuli mieleeni Tessa Hadleyn Vapaa rakkaus ja Ann Tylerin Päivällinen koti-ikävän ravintolassa, joista pidin vielä enemmän kuin tästä. Ehkä ihmissuhteiden vatulointi ja tunteiden ja tapojen analysointi on kuitenkin kirjallisuuden ydintä, kuten Gustave Flaubertin Rouva Bovary tai Henry Jamesin Naisen muotokuva jo todistavat.

[Laila · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brookner is all interior - characters's motivations, fears, reveries, inner dialogue. This one was exquisite.

[Till Raether · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is very odd. The narrator tells the story of her parents' marriage and introduces herself as "unreliable." More than once she has people mention that "this is 1971,“ a year in which her parents are in their early twenties, at the most. They marry at the end of 1971, the narrator is born in 1980 or 1981, when her mother is ... 31? She later mentions her mother dying in her fifties, and the narrator running her father's bookshop. So the narrator tells the story from the vantage point of ... somewhere between 2001 and 2005? The book was published in ... 1995. What?

Anyway, the narrator advertises her own story as a mere fantasy, and maybe that's why Brookner writes about 1971 as if it's 1931, with little interest in how young people talked and behaved in 1971, and with the most stilted dialogue Brookner has written.

So the book is a (deliberate?) mess, and very depressing. I liked it, but it's not in her top 10.

[Alarie · Rating 3 out of 5]

About a third of the way in, Brookner’s style became tedious to me, a bit too internal and repetitious. The story line and behavior of characters felt like they belonged to an earlier time, not the 1970s to millennium. But novels set in England and France always appeal to me on some level. In this story, people marry for the wrong reasons and stick it out, each trapped in his or her own longings for more, or maybe the daughter is mistaken in her suppositions.

[Melinda Millard · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disliked the characters. Too much introspection by boring people.

[John Purcell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another absolute gem of a novel. Anita Brookner dives so deep into the human psyche that the pressure builds and becomes almost unbearable. Incidents in the Rue Laugier examines a marriage of convenience. A daughter tries to make sense of her parents' life together. A teasing, playful setup that does not prepare us for narrative the daughter conjures up from the scant clues left by her mother. Utterly brilliant again.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

I agree with other reviewers that _Incidents in the Rue Laugier_ gets off to a very slow start, mainly because the frame narrative and first-person narrator are unrelated to the main plot line, at least until the very end of the book. Then there is still more exposition within the main story, which again seems unrelated until you are well into the book. It took me a couple of days just to get through the first 75 pp. of this book, which is about when it starts picking up. (By way of comparison, I usually read at least the first 75-100 pp. of a book in the first sitting--so to take days just to get there was veeerrry slow for me.) However, when I got to the last page of this one, I had the feeling of turning back to the beginning and starting over -- because I felt like the early information was important but less so at the outset when you are wanting more plot and drive to the story.

Part of the problem with the lengthy exposition is that the title indicates something juicy and mysterious--_Incidents in the Rue Laugier_--and instead this novel is more of a character study along the lines of Henry James and other turn-of-the-century realists. Thus, I would recommend this book for fans of James and Wharton, but not for those who like more plot-driven narratives. I found myself wishing for another title, which presents a potential mismatch of expectations. Even when you get to the "incidents," they seem hardly to be "incidents" but instead to be an extension of the story thus far.

A Booker-prize winning author, Brookner certainly knows how to craft dense and psychologically rich paragraphs; however, I often found fault on the sentence level, where pronouns were sometimes ambiguous and dialogue was sometimes untagged. For example, you might have a couple of pages about Nadine and Maud, with dialogue interspersed with third-person narration, and then the narrator would say, "She thought XYZ," and I often had to stop and figure out which "she" we were reading about--Maud or Nadine? Or, for example, dialogue would lapse and restart, and you wouldn't know who was saying what. Similarly, one of the main characters at the outset is referred to as Edward and then (quite suddenly) as Harrison; if you are not paying attention when he is first introduced as "Edward Harrison," you might miss the very important fact that the "two" are the same character. My difficulties here might have stemmed from my taking days to get through the early exposition, though, and getting through it more quickly might have eliminated such forgetfulness on my part. But these issues seemed to me to be an oversight that could have been quite easily corrected by an editor.

Finally, I wondered why the author chose to make this a frame story with a self-proclaimed unreliable narrator. The frame seemed completely unnecessary to me, almost like it was a writing prompt to get her started with the novel -- and then something that she forgot to or opted not to eliminate. The story of Maud Gonthier, Edward Harrison, and David Tyler could well have been told without any frame at all, and perhaps would have sped the opening exposition and facilitated a smoother entry into the main plot.

[Wisewebwoman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my second Anita Brookner. I wondered for a while what era I was reading about, it seems almost Victorian. Mannerly. Feelings withheld. A jarring introduction of birth control to let me know it was 1971. A French countrified 1971 where a good marriage meant everything to an impoverished widow for a her daughter.

An odd contrivance of a daughter exploring the story of her parents through a small notebook with only a few words scattered on it.

Basically the story of a loveless marriage, I was brought into the story by Brookner's use of words, she is a master detailer of the interior dialogue.

After a slow start, the book quickly becomes unputdownable. Maud and Edward take hold and don't let go.

[Marlene · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing! Worth re-reading and discussing.

[Sterlingcindysu · Rating 3 out of 5]

This Brookner is a little different than others I've read. While many of the similarities are there (lonely widowed women, long walks, careers to do with books and more thoughts than actions), here the main character Edward is a man vs. a woman. Maud is from France and not London (although they live in London) so there's more talk of bread, cheese and coffee instead of tea and biscuits. There's a small twist at the end...hope my daughter will think as well for me as Maffy does Maud!

[Rahul Singh · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is almost sacrilegious of me to write on a book by Brookner at this point. Every book of hers that I read, I fall in love with her writing more. This is my eighth book of hers and I have shamelessly loved it as though it were the first book of hers I was reading. She writes the same story in many twisted ways. You arrive at the same destination: of a lonely woman, a marriage gone wrong, getting older and more sophisticated. In this book, we follow Maud, a young girl from Dijon who is in love with a boy of her age and has made love to her. But she knows that the love is not reciprocated. In Rue Laugier, both go on walks and have sex until one day Tyler has to leave for a short visit and Edward, his friend, decides to give company to Maud. The incidents following this upturn the lives of Maud and Edward. They enter into a relation meant for their doom and solitary existences. Through searingly repetitive portrait of their connexion, we witness a marriage of two angry and frustrated individuals who would not leave each other be. Every sentence and chapter tried to convey the same grief that Maud and Edward undergo but Brookner writes with such eloquence that you don't want to put it away. Never have I read such a stunning portrait of a toxic marriage in silence. There are no domestic feuds, no spousal thrashing, no abuse, no control, no dramatic violence. It is a silent portrait of a marriage turning on itself until it is decayed beyond salvation. There were moments I laughed. There were instances I wanted to hug the two of them. There were moments I wanted to shake them into reality. Such are the emotions Brookner inspires in her reader. She will always be a favourite. Always.

[Irina · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me over a year to finish “The Incidents” but the most peculiar thing about this journey is that I never had to start over. When I came back to its last thirty pages after months of delay, I remembered the story well enough to just go on reading. That rarely happens with books that are not plot driven.

Brookner is really addictive which I put down to two factors: the beauty and sheer intelligence of her writing, and a relative shortness of her novels. “The Incidents” takes place in France and the UK. Edward is a young man who wants to travel the world and lead the kind of life that is exact opposite of his personality - uninhibited, adventurous, reckless. His friend Tyler on the other hand is exactly that. He is the kind of man every woman (supposedly) wants to go home with after party. When they both become interested in the same woman, all sorts of drama ensues. We get to follow the progress of their lives and in the end presented with a question of whether any of it happened as was told.

“The Incidents” was not as bleak as are so many of Brookner’s novels. I would recommend to pick it up if it’s your first or if you love her work, but don’t feel like reading another one of her stories about how the Hares of this world have all the fun while the Turtles try so hard to do the right thing, only to end up being punished for it.

[Cherise Wolas · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've read many of Anita Brookner's marvelous novels. This one read strangely to me. For a good part of the book, I thought I was in the late 1800s or early 1900s, based on the aspirations of Nadine for her daughter Maude, the clothing, the summer holiday in the country at the house of Nadine's sisters, the young men guests who seem to have all the time in the world. I was stunned to find that it was actually set in the 1970s. I also wondered about her use of unreliable narrator - the daughter of Maude who finds a notebook of her mother's, and in it there are only a few words - a phrase by Proust, etc., and then creates what she thinks the lives of her grandmother, mother, father, etc. were like. It's not really accurate to call the narrator unreliable - she tells us she's making this up. I was interested to read to the end but it never fully grabbed me. Too much languor, too many choices made that seem more fitting to the time period that I thought it was, not the 1970s. Still, she is a wonderful writer, and her talents with interiority are superb.

[Mauberley]

'All life is good, even if it is ficticious.'

Yet another wonderful book by Ms Brookner. After 'Strangers' and 'The Next Big Thing', it was a pleasure to read of main characters who are somewhat younger than Paul Sturgis et al. I like this author best when she writes from within her characters rather from outside.
'Incidents' is essentially a tale of choices made and the consequences that the characters choose to endure and in less than 250 pages, it ranges from London to Paris to Dijon to Eastbourne to 'a hollow between Meaux and Melun' with each locale concisely and vividly evoked. A very real strangeness comes from the book's narrator Mary Francoise who at the start of the book begs us to 'Please accept that I am an unreliable narrator' and who then proceeds to relate the story of her mother Maud and her subsequent marriage to Edward. This is a beautiful piece of fiction.

[Claire Kopp · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anita Brookner has become my favorite author. Think Jane Austin but shorter stories. This is my 4th book by Ms. Brookner, and I have loved all of them. I am not one to read a lot by the same author but I want to read all of hers! She has such a command of the English language- very powerful prose in such condensed books. I started making a vocabulary list of words I have to look up from her books this book was only a little over 200 pages, and I have about 15 words! The imagery and character development are superb, and you just get swept up with emotion. A very gifted and VERY understated author.

[kp · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brookner succeeds again in creating yearning yet reticent characters whose lives are ordinary yet who make a prison of memory and desire. A tale of disappointment, memory, and deep love that is at once sustaining and insufficient. Every sentence is perfect.

[Peg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Author has been called a latter-day Jane Austen. In this book she explores the consequences of sensuality, passion, betrayal, and of a surprising love affair.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brief review in my tribute to Anita Brookner (1928-2016) at http://anzlitlovers.com/2016/03/15/va...

[Michal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent yet complicated story dealing with the heart.

[Ruth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the idea behind this book. Maud finds a notebook belonging to her dead mother. It only contains a few bits of information but enough for her to write an imagined story of her mother's life. Unfortunately, it is rather a bleak and unhappy story about unrequited love and broken dreams. While Anita Brookner was clearly a talented writer I found this a bit over long and tedious at times.

[YooYoo · Rating 4 out of 5]

La història m'ha agradat molt però per algun motiu em sembla inversemblant l,acció transcorri al 1971.

[Naomi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Classic AB - actually one of her best methinks. I didn't really need the frame narrative but it does add a vibe of sad pointlessness to the already sad story. Her sentences are so perfect!

[Laudan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely wonderful. This book was so much more than I expected. One of Anita Brookner’s finest novels.

[Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know if I like this book or not. I found the writing glorious, but the lengthy introspection made parts of the story just too slow. Maud and her daughter are quite difficult people to like but i recognised them and found them familiar. Edward, however, I couldn't understand, why was he so angry and bored in his life